So what are you calling Monday? For me, it’s primarily a mail holiday

Are you amongst the individuals who are persisting in thinking of Monday as Columbus Day, even though it is one you probably haven’t had off since you were back in elementary school?

Hero? Or Scoundrel?

Or are you going out of your way to think of this as Indigenous Peoples Day – out of some line of thought that you’re making a political statement in favor of the people who supposedly were “discovered” by the Italian (but Spanish-funded) explorer Christopher Columbus.

WHICH MEANS THAT for a day, we get to become entangled in a dispute over which ethnic group deserves to have a “holiday” recognizing it – and which one ought to be hanging its head in shame at the actions of its ethnic brethren.

Personally, the significance for me is in the fact that Monday is one of the federal holidays for which the U.S. Postal Service halts delivery for the day. Which matters to me because I receive paychecks in the mail that usually are mailed at such a time that I receive them on Monday.

But this being a mail holiday, it means I won’t get paid this week until Tuesday – or later, if it turns out that the Postal Service experiences other delays. But the ineptitude of the Postal Service is a separate issue – and perhaps one that I will choose to write about another time.

But for now, we’re going to have to contemplate just how much of a load of bull we were fed during those elementary school history lessons – which were filled with information that was usually vague or undetailed to the point where most of us have a pathetic sense of what really happened in our nation’s past.

A THOUGHT WE ought to keep in mind whenever the ideologues in this Age of Trump claim they’re “Making America Great Again.” Most of them have a twisted sense of what this country was!

But as for Columbus, many of us are going to rant and rage at the thought of any significance being paid to the four voyages he made across the Atlantic Ocean that were among the first contact Europeans had with the continents now known as the Americas.

Can we really erase Columbus?

Others will whine and scream about the fact that anybody would want to downplay those voyages. Personally, I’ve always found some sense of humor in the fact that Columbus’ purpose in making the voyages was to find a new route to India for trade purposes.

Columbus, in search of Indians, instead discovered Puerto Ricans (and Dominicans, although no one knew them as such at the time).

ALTHOUGH AS FAR as I know, Columbus himself wouldn’t have been ridiculous enough as to use the mocking pronunciations of Puerto Rico that Donald Trump used last week. Particularly since those indigenous people thought of themselves as being from Boricua – and called themselves Boricuans.

As one who is of Mexican ethnic origin, I can comprehend the sense of disgust some feel at the notion of European types wanting to have their cultural background dominate the story of this portion of the world – as though those who were already here had no significance until they were exposed to the Euro ways of doing things.

But then again, I also comprehend how much the Spaniards – who were Columbus’ financial sponsors – spread their ways. It’s not like the 23 nations of Latin America would have anything in common; if NOT for the Spanish language and Catholic religion that was imposed upon them. And the reality of history is that it wasn’t American explorers headed east to Europe – it was the European influence that caused the two to interact.

I won't be buying anything for $14.92

I also recently stumbled across a commentary saying that people should lighten up in their criticism of Columbus – based on the logic that the English settlers were actually far worse when it came to their mistreatment of native peoples to the American continents.

IT MAKES ME think that the reason some are so eager to dump on Columbus Day is because perhaps they perceive Italian culture and traditions in this country as being of lesser value – and therefore more open to criticism.

Perhaps we ought to think a little less of those history lessons about 1620 and Plymouth Rock and the Pilgrims. Of course, our real history is the intermixing of peoples – and perhaps we ought to realize we can’t really “take sides” – we have to acknowledge both.

Unless we’re prepared to do away with Thanksgiving. Which is something I think many of us would dismiss as crazy talk.

One other drawback; for me at least. Because it’s a mail holiday, I’ll be paid late. Which means I can’t even think of taking advantage of all those Columbus Day holiday sales – no new mattress for me!

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Blows against fascism and slavery; or just attacking Italian legacy in Chicago?

It is an authentic pillar some 2,000 years old that came from a building in an ancient port town just outside of Rome, and this legitimate piece of Italian history was presented as a gift to Chicago back in 1934.

A postcard image from back in the day when both Balbo and Columbus could be regarded as heroic. Image provided by Chuckman's Photos.

It was given to the city as a gesture of goodwill, on account of the fact that one year earlier during the Century of Progress World’s Fair held one year earlier, one of the prime attractions was the air show put on by Italian General Italo Balbo – who had flown from Italy to Chicago to get to the show.

THE EVENT WAS even so significant that 7^th Street in the South Loop was renamed, and remains known as, Balbo Drive.

It was no secret at the time that Italy’s government was the fascist regime of Benito Mussolini, although no one thought enough of the symbolism of such a gift back then to think of refusing it. That would have been rude.

The days when Italy was officially part of the Axis powers of whom the United States were opposed to during the Second World War were still seven years in the future.

So it’s only now that activist-types in other parts of the nation are getting worked up over all those damned statues of Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee and other leaders of the traitorous movement for a Confederacy that our local people are treating the Balbo monument as being our local equivalent of an offensive tribute.

THEY’RE PUTTING ON enough pressure that City Council officials are scheduled to consider renaming Balbo Drive, and also taking down the column – which admittedly never tried to hide the message its gift was trying to present.

The base upon which it is displayed has an Italian language message that says, in part when translated into English: “Fascist Italy, by command of Benito Mussolini presents to Chicago exaltation symbol memorial of the Atlantic Squadron led by Balbo that with Roman daring flew across the ocean in the 11^th year of the Fascist era.”

The offending column

It’s probably a wonder that such a blunt message wasn’t taken down years ago. It probably would have been a priority if it had been something Japanese.

Yet I can’t help but think that the column itself, which originally was erected on the beach of Ostia that was a Rome port, has a legitimate historic value. Probably something that would fit in perfectly as an exhibit in the Field Museum.

ALONG WITH ALL the other worldly artifacts that are on public display. I would hope that nobody is seriously thinking of reducing the 13-foot-tall column of breccia into rubble. That would just be petty.

As for the base with the Fascist message, that is not of an ancient origin. That could go. Although I’m sure that thought will offend those of Italian ethnic origins who want to insist that the current display is merely a cultural tribute – and nothing more.

Because I’m also sure those same people are prepared to take great offense to the latest pronouncement from Ameya Pawar, the 47^th Ward alderman who wants to be elected as Illinois governor. Pawar says that if elected, he’ll use his powers to eliminate Columbus Day as an official state government holiday.

Not that he’s expecting state workers to work an extra day, or for schoolchildren to have to go to class. He wants to replace a holiday for the Spanish-paid explorer with one honoring the indigenous peoples who already lived in the Americas at the time of Columbus’ arrival.

WHICH WOULD PUT Illinois in the same class as Vermont, or cities such as Denver and Phoenix. For what it’s worth, the same City Council that now wants to erase Gen. Balbo passed an indigenous peoples’ resolution for Chicago, but that was a one-year thing. Efforts to make such a holiday an annual event in the Second City have stalled.

PAWAR: Getting votes by doing away w/ Columbus

I don’t know that I get as worked up about Columbus and whether or not he was a slave trader as some people do. Although I’m not about to plant altruistic motives to Columbus’ life as some people are determined to do.

Personally, I find the irony in the notion that the potentially first Indian-American to be chosen as governor would be the one to dump Columbus Day, since Columbus’ so-called discovery was an attempt at finding new trade routes to India.

Only to get distracted by arriving in what is now the Dominican Republic, and later Puerto Rico. One could sarcastically argue that at least Balbo managed to reach his intended destination.

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EDITOR'S NOTE: So what do we do with the very prime location in the middle of Grant Park where Balbo Drive and Columbus Drive intersect?

EXTRA: It’s beginning to look a lot like a strike will take place this autumn

We’ll know more come Wednesday, but it’s becoming more apparent that the Chicago Teachers Union is not likely to reach any contract agreement any time soon in their ongoing dispute with the public schools system.

Union officials on Monday let it be known the results of its recent vote over whether to issue a strike authorization. That’s the step by which the actual teachers give the teachers’ union leadership the authority to decide whether to call for a strike.

AS IN PICKET lines, protests and teachers chanting slogans that take the name of Mayor Rahm Emanuel in vain, all while parents get all peeved that they now have to find alternate daycare for their children – whom they had counted on being able to shuttle off to school.

For the record, 90.6 percent of union members took part in the vote, and 95.6 percent of those people voted “yes” to the idea of going out on strike.

In short, teachers are upset with the idea that school management has tried to make it seem as though it’s their greed that is causing the financial problems that confront the Chicago Public Schools system.

So after going through decades of leadership during the years of Mayor Richard M. Daley without labor disputes, it appears that Emanuel could face the prospect of his third strike to occur during his five years, thus far, as mayor.

THE NEXT STEP is for the teachers’ union’s governing body to meet, and that is scheduled for Wednesday. At that time, the union could proceed to approve the 10-day notice required by law of the teachers’ intent to take to the picket lines.

It also means the first day we could actually see picketing school teachers is Oct. 11 – one day after the official day for celebrating Columbus Day. Which means we could literally get the sight of picketing American Indian activists calling Christopher Columbus a slave trader and a tyrant, followed up a day later by the sight of school teachers coming up with nastier things to say about Emanuel.

There really is no love lost between the two sides, as most people perceive the Chicago Public Schools management as nothing more than a batch of lackeys doing the mayor’s bidding.

Is it all Rahm's fault?

One other potential issue, for those who are religious-minded.

TECHNICALLY, THE JEWISH holiday of Yom Kippur is Oct. 12, with certain aspects of its celebration beginning the night before.

Could someone who is Jewish and who teaches in the Chicago schools claim they’re not working because they’re honoring their religious beliefs? Or would they have to make their religious statement by not participating in the picketing that could place that day?

On a serious note, I realize there are real issues at stake in this labor dispute, and this one religious issue is likely to be a minor point, if significant at all.

But with the proposed cuts that union officials say will hurt special education classes, librarians, counselors, social workers and teachers’ aides – along with leaving many needed teachers out-of-work – we have to find some way of alleviating the hurt that likely is going to spill out publicly in coming weeks.

  -30-

Day the river turns greener than usual

The holiday proper may be Monday, but Saturday's the day that the explorer who allegedly "discovered" America becomes Christopher O'Columbus for a day.

On Friday, it was the fountain outside Daley Center that was dyed green. On Saturday, it will be entirety of the Chicago River. Come Sunday, it will be the garbage from the parade that has a green residue. Photograph by Gregory Tejeda

It's the St. Patrick's Day parade, which in Chicago used to be an overbloated, pompous display of political might from the politicos of Irish ethnic origins.

IT'S NOT WHAT it used to be, though. I recall the old days of parades down Dearborn Street (and perhaps we ought to be fortunate that one of them wound up being integrated into the 1994 film "The Fugitive" so we can get a glimpse of what they used to be.

Now, those parades travel down about a four-block stretch of Columbus Drive. Which allows for the city skyline to be in the background. But which also gives them a generic parade feel.

Who can tell the difference between the Irish parade or the Mexican Independence Day event or any other group that has their annual parade along the same strip?

Gov. Pat Quinn will be on hand for the Saturday parade. But what will it say when an authentic Irish-American pol will likely be overshadowed by a Jewish guy?

RAHM EMANUEL IS, after all, Da Mayor. Quinn is just a political schnook who has to go to Springfield to be considered important (and even there doesn't get a whole lot of respect).

If anything, it is the events such as the South Side Irish parade out in the Beverly neighborhood that takes on more character, or the events that will be held in various suburban communities.

One of those in Elmhurst took place a week ago, and it resulted in a man having spent the past week in the DuPage County Jail, where charges are pending against him for comments he posted on a website hinting he might set off explosives during the event.

Definitely not someone in the holiday spirit.

PERSONALLY, I DON'T get all that excited about St. Patrick's Day. Although it is encouraging to see that Cinco de Mayo celebrations in Chicago are not the only ethnic-inspired events that result in way too much alcoholic consumption. (Just for what it's worth, the Census Bureau says 34.1 million U.S. residents claim Irish ethnic background, compared to 53.03 million who are Latino).

But it does say something about the ethnic character of Chicago that the people still try to do something to maintain an awareness of who they are and where they came from.

Which is something I find dismaying about visiting other places, where the white people have become so generic that they don't have a clue what they are (and anybody who tries to retort "They're American!" is missing the point of what our nation truly is).

I also find it amusing to see the annual tradition in Chicago that will be carried out this morning -- where the Chicago River is dyed green.

A NICE, BRIGHT shade of kelly green that looks like something the Lucky Charms leprechaun would wear before you took a bite of that overly-sugary mass that no one above the age of six ought to eat.

Which is different from the dull shade of greyish-green tha the Chicago River has become every other day of the year -- on account of the century's worth of pollution that has accumulated ever since the river flow's direction was altered to keep pollution out of Lake Michigan.

That makes me wonder about all those people who claim that the alteration is to blame for the possibility of Asian Carp getting into Lake Michigan. They'd have the engineering miracle undone.

Which could mean the residue of St. Patrick's Day could wind up in the lake. How many decades worth would it take before the lake turned green -- and we'd have to hear a batch of political dweebs from Michigan and Wisconsin complain about that!

SO FOR THOSE of you who feel compelled to show up at the Columbus Drive parade, here's hoping you enjoy yourself. Although I couldn't help but notice that the commuter trains I rode on Friday made a point of of mentioning that no alcohol would be permitted this weekend.

Although from my past years' experiences, I'm sure there will be those who get themselves "loaded" before catching a train, while also finding a way to smuggle a few bottles on themselves.

Is that the "Chicago Way" when it comes to parades?

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Columbus Day not the same as our youth

I recall a moment that took place more than a decade ago – I was chatting with a person who worked on the Illinois state government payroll and we were joking about the concept that while the rest of the world worked, she would have the day off.

It was early October of that year, and Columbus Day was just a couple of days away. “It’s the first time I’ve had Columbus Day off since I was in grammar school,” she told me.

NOW, IN CHICAGO proper at least, even that’s not true.

For it turns out that the Chicago Public Schools aren’t going to waste one of their “holidays” to celebrate the explorer hired by the Spaniards to go to India (but managed to stumble his way into Puerto Rico instead).

His “Indians” were actually “Boricuans.” But it made for a nice story to tell grade school children about how Cristobal Colon “discovered” a whole new continent. Who today would give Christopher Columbus such a noble image? Illustration provided by the Library of Congress Collection.

His “discovery” was one of the stupid accidents of history that likely would have happened eventually (it was just a matter of time before those Eurocentric Europeans discovered the existence of two more continents on Planet Earth).

WHEN ONE CONSIDERS the number of other holidays that vie for the public’s attention, perhaps it is fitting that Columbus Day be taken down a notch or two to the level of a lesser holiday.

Put it up there with Flag Day, which to my mindset is about where it belongs.

So I’m not bothered by the fact that Chicago schoolchildren (or at least those whose parents don’t make a point of sending them to the Catholic schools maintained by the Chicago Archdiocese) won’t be getting a day off to sit around the house watching cartoons or roaming the streets in search of something, anything to fill a day’s worth of downtime.

There will be enough private school kids and suburban youths (including my nephews and nieces) who will get the day off, although I don’t think the day will be anything resembling an educational experience – which is what proponents of keeping the holiday will claim is its purpose.

NOW I PROBABLY should state that while I do agree there is some element of truth to those people who would argue that Columbus was just another conquistador in search of riches whose actions wound up causing harm to the indigenous peoples already here (Hernan Cortes meeting up with the Aztecs in what is now modern-day Mexico would be a similar example), I’m not inclined to get as worked up over the issue.

I think the people who start making comparisons to Adolf Hitler or going out of their way to write sentences that pair up the words “Columbus” and “genocide” are getting a bit overworked. Did they forget to take their medication this morning?

Just about anyone who takes on some project on a grand scale has an ugly side that can be exaggerated into pure evil. It also is true that many of those grand-scale projects were flukes, as the person likely was in search of something much less moralistic.

Are we better off thinking of Columbus as a seeker of riches who made the trip in the first place because he was paid very well by the Spanish royal family? Probably.

ARE WE BETTER off trying to ignore outright the man who was one of the first contacts between indigenous American (even though they never would have thought to use that label for themselves) and European cultures?

No. Because that would be just a gross a rewrite of the history books as those people who want to view him as some sort of saintly character.

So what we in Chicago will get this year is what has become the typical ethnic holiday parade – the one that starts at Balbo Street and works its way up Columbus Drive to Monroe Street.

At least this is the proper holiday to have a parade there. The Columbus Day parade on Columbus Drive sounds cute – unlike the St. Patrick’s Day parade that always leads to silly jokes about Cristobal being renamed “O’Columbus” for the day to make him an honorary Irishman.

JUST FOR THE record, I’m not going, nor do I plan to watch any of it on television. The only times I have seen these parades are when I had to work as a reporter-type person and cover them.

Otherwise, they just don’t do much for me. Because in a sense, the parade itself will become the generic ethnicfest that all of the downtown Chicago holiday parades have become in recent years.

How else to explain the fact that the Mexican Folkloric Dancers will be among the many groups participating in the event? You’d think my ethnic brethren would be aligned with those Puerto Rican activists who want to mourn the arrival of Columbus on the Caribbean island.

Except that we’re too busy working to get all hot and bothered about this cause. In fact, there are times I think only the Italians are truly concerned (and I don’t just say this because of the episode of “The Sopranos” where Tony’s mob administered a serious beat-down to native American activists) about this issue.

WHICH IS PROBABLY fitting, since the fact that Italians like to claim Columbus as one of their own even though the concept of Italy as a single nation united didn’t exist until some 350-plus years after his death.

Would Columbus himself (born in Genoa in 1451) have thought such a characterization accurate? It is the question I always wonder when I think of the holiday, not about whether Columbus was a genocidal maniac?

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EDITOR’S NOTE: For those of you who have no desire to see yet another downtown Chicago parade (http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=resources/inside_station/station_info&id=7051611) on television, avoid WLS-TV (Channel 7) at all costs between noon and 3 p.m. Don’t say you weren’t warned.